Good news for Route 211 pedestrians

TOWN OF WALLKILL — The Town of Wallkill is getting a $1.34 million grant to extend the sidewalk on Route 211 East to the Walmart at the corner of Dunning Road.

BY NATHAN BROWN

TOWN OF WALLKILL — The Town of Wallkill is getting a $1.34 million grant to extend the sidewalk on Route 211 East to the Walmart at the corner of Dunning Road.

The new, extended sidewalk would go on the Walmart side of the road. Currently, there is a sidewalk from the city line to near the former Cheeseburger in Paradise, but only unconnected sections of sidewalk after that.

"Very nice," said Laura Bullinger, who lives near Silver Lake. "I'm so happy about that."

Bullinger considered forming a volunteer group to lobby for more sidewalks in the town. She had been thinking about it for a while — her stepson walks to work on 211.

"It's pretty scary, especially for people who have to work the retail stores," she said.

She said the two recent pedestrian deaths, in Woodbury and New Windsor, had inspired her to consider doing something now.

"Some of the streets are just so pedestrian-unfriendly, you have no choice (but) to get in your car and drive," she said. "That's an awful thing, that cars can go where people can't."

Bullinger said she's probably going to hold off forming a group for now, though, and see what the town does with the money.

She said she hopes sidewalks will eventually extend off Route 211 onto the side streets.

The grants are administered by the state; the money comes from the Federal Highway Administration and will cover 80 percent of the project's cost; the town needs to pick up the other 20 percent. Gov. Cuomo announced the funding last week.

It's going to be a while before the sidewalk is built. Town Supervisor Dan Depew said the design still needs to be done, after which public hearings will be held. Depew said the grants were highly competitive.

"We didn't think that we were going to get it, to be honest," he said.

Once the connector road from Orange Plaza to the Galleria mall is built, Depew said people will be able to walk along 211, cut through the plaza and walk to the Galleria.

Construction on that long-delayed project is scheduled to start this summer.

The grant will also cover some aesthetic landscaping improvements to 211 as part of the project.

Much of the Town of Wallkill lacks sidewalks, and people walking to work or to do shopping on the sides of busy roads as traffic whizzes by are a common sight in some areas.

"We're not that far from anything. But trying to walk down Bert Crawford Road — it's like a death wish at times," said Bob Bullinger, Laura's husband.

Over the past 10 years, there have been at least 22 pedestrian-motor vehicle accidents on 211, said Town of Wallkill Police Chief Robert Hertman. That doesn't include any that may have been handled by other police agencies.